 “Your Lord is not inclined to destroy any civilizations without cause if its people are working towards justice.” -Surah Hud The vast majority of people have been exposed to some version of the stories of “civilizations” destroyed by “God”/with “God’s help” in what we call the “Abrahamic” faiths.
Noah and the flood. Joshua and the battle of Jericho. The plagues in Egypt. That one that the homophobes love to cite so inaccurately. In all of these stories, it is said that the destruction and suffering experienced by the people in those civilizations was deserved. Their behavior was deceptive at best, and wicked at worst. Within the Qur’an, the leaders and people of those civilizations are often said to have been given the “Truth” by Allah’s messengers in the past, and have either abandoned over time or never even accepted what had been revealed to them. They are given opportunity after opportunity, messenger after messenger, sign after sign, and yet engage in beliefs and behaviors described as “transgressions” against God. Whether or not those stories are true or accurately interpreted, there’s a challenging question posed within this particular verse. What if it’s supposed to collapse? What if the collapse is the only way for something new and good to emerge? For many of us in a particular country that rhymes with the "Blue Mess Gay," we are watching something collapse. Institutions and structures we hold dear being dismantled without hesitation. Let me be clear - THE PEOPLE DOING THIS ARE NOT DOING HOLY OR SACRED WORK. Far from it. But maybe, the ease with which they are dismantling the pieces of what we had built to try to create some semblance of care or justice is an indication that what was built wasn’t meant to last. What was built was a bubble wand in response to a fire. It was a way of trying to create imitation-justice in a civilization that was never built for justice. Perhaps the holy and sacred work we are now being called to as these fragile institutions are blown away by the big bad Musk is to take it all the way. To acknowledge that what was built wasn’t ever going to generate universal justice or collective liberation because they were built on a quicksand that was always designed to dehumanize and kill. What does it look like then, for those of us who believe in Love, the Sacred, Justice, to be part of dismantling in care? What Truth do we return to if we acknowledge that what we had was never going to work? And what possibilities can we imagine and create when we are given the space to build something new on more fertile and solid ground?
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 “It is Allah who made the sun self luminescent radiance and the moon a reflector of light, and established phases/orbits for them so that you may know the number of years and how to calculate. Allah did not create all of these without purpose and balance, God explains the Signs in detail to those who understand. In the succession of the night and the day, and in what Allah has created in the heavens and earth, there truly are signs for those who have great taqwa/God-consciousness.” - Sura Yunus Creation creates so creation can continue creating. Try saying that 10 times fast.
But truly, what does it mean to examine this world and experience the patterns it contains as intentional? As designed, maybe not by a bearded old white man in the clouds, but by a Love that wanted us to exist as part of its design? A Love that willed us into being through and for an ongoing cycle of creation? If there is a purpose or design behind all existence, and not merely our own…how are we doing, fam? How are we, as creations of and for Love, supporting the intention to keep things balanced? How are we humbling ourselves with curiosity and gratitude to a reality that exists for us AND for us to sustain? Humanity today seems to have largely lost our understanding of how to exist in right relationship with Creation. We’ve lost that sense of balance in how we experience the design that brought us about. Rather than use the knowledge that Love has brought us into being to revere the ways we can engage Creation to power our imagination, we use that knowledge to take from Creation as though it is a lesser resource we owe nothing to. We’ve lost the sense of balance that reminds us that what we receive isn’t for us to consume, but to engage in a mutually nourishing way. We’ve failed to recognize that part of the purpose behind our existence is to create alongside Creation - to enhance Life and Love, not to extract from them. The good news is that there are ways to restore balance. Maybe not the balance that was possible 10 or 5 or even one year ago. But a new balance that puts Love at the center of how we choose to return to our purposeful world.  “Those who have a certainty of faith, and who migrate and struggle in the path of Allah with their possessions and their souls, they have a rank higher in the sight of God, and it is they who will triumph. Their Lord gives them the good news of God’s mercy and acceptance, and Gardens for them of everlasting bounties.” - Sura Al-Tawba There are too many people in our world today who are having to make the choice between struggling in the path of Allah or remaining in a place where the Sacred is being denied to them.
Too many families are having to make the decision to uproot themselves from the only places they’ve called home so that they can be safe and affirmed in their identities. Too many families are being denied the right to live into the fullness of their being, the right to be known by the Love that holds and celebrates all of who they are. Too many families are being forced out of their ancestral homes where they have built communities of resilience and joy in the face of occupation and settler colonialism. It is not enough for us to say that there is a Love, a Holy, a Sacred, a God, that knows their struggle is unjust. To leave it there would be nothing less than spiritual bypassing. No. In the midst of our beloveds - who are certain of their own right to not just survive but thrive - we must embody what that Holy knowledge requires. We must BE the good news. Be the co-creators of mercy and acceptance, the tenders of gardens of endless bounties for people who have too long been denied their right to rest. Whether that is facilitating their journeys to safety and care, or re-creating the world so that those journeys are no longer necessary - we have a responsibility to each other to ensure that nobody is denied their right to lay their possessions and souls down anywhere and know that they are welcome.  “And Prophet, remember your Lord from the depths of your soul with humility and awe, and without raising your voice, in the mornings and in the evenings - do not be one of the heedless - even those who live in the presence of your Lord, are not arrogant in their worship and service of God; they glorify God and bow down before God.” - Sura Al-A’raf If we really stop to think about, REALLY stop to reflect, so little of our life is within our (individual) control. Our very existence, the creation of our being, happened without (as far as our present selves know) any conscious effort or planning on our part. Most of our hearts beat without any intervention and we are wholly dependent on others for nourishment in the earliest years of our life. Weather patterns shift without our input and the sun that sustains the plants that sustain our lives burned long before we arrived. The driver of the bus we take on our morning commute carries our safety in their hands just as much as the medical professionals who administer our vaccines. So much of our life, even the parts we have some control over, is intertwined with forces we have no choice but to accept or trust.
That can be a scary reality…and it can be a liberating one. Our lives are not wholly our own to sustain - they are collectively created and held. Our independence is only made possible by our interdependence - I cannot be if you do not help me be, and vice versa. No moment of your existence is untouched by something greater than you - community, Life, Love, God. Some of us have lost or abandoned this understanding of our beautifully limited and fragile nature. That pride and arrogance leads to the unholy neglect of those who depend on others for care; the prideful extraction and destruction of life from this earth; the diminishment of the value of some “essential” roles over others. Taking the time to remember how we are limited and dependent on forces beyond ourselves does not have to be solely a source of caution or fear. It can also strengthen our courage - if we know our lives are held in care and woven together with others, we know that nothing we do is ever really done alone.  “Children of Adam! Cover yourself well in taqwa [God-consciousness] when you are going to worship, and eat and drink what has been permitted, but do not do so in excess: God does not love those who waste.” - Sura Al-A’raf What do you wear to remind yourself of whatever it is you hold above all else? Do you have a literal “garment,” accessory, tattoo, covering, etc. that in wearing or displaying you have as a reminder of your relationship to the Holy? What do you physically adorn yourself with to sustain your awareness that what you receive is a gift that we are here to steward for others too?
Though taqwa is not a literal garment, there are ways in which we can physically embody what it looks like. How do we adorn ourselves in ways that respect and revere the life around us? Wearing a shirt that proclaims “no human is illegal” so that we remember our commitment to welcoming the stranger? Including pronouns on name tags and in introductions so we remember to honor our trans kin’s identities? Wearing a mask so we remember to make spaces accessible by centering the most vulnerable among us? When we adorn ourselves in taqwa - that understanding that there is so much we receive without even asking for it - we remember our charge to ensure those who come after experience that same abundance. That just because there is more than enough doesn’t mean we take more than our fill. That when there is an opportunity for releasing restrictions in our lives, we take the time to truly understand what the impact of releasing that restriction would be - collectively liberating or inequitably isolating? Perhaps for some of us, the garment of God-consciousness is community - the reminder that all that we do has an impact on those around us, and the commitment to embodying collective care and liberating love in our interdependent state.  “And who is a greater transgressor that one who ascribes a lie to Allah or Allah’s signs? Lo! Those who transgress do not attain felicity! And the Day when We gather them all together, and we ask those who associated [partners with Allah]: ‘Where are your partners you used to claim as deities?’ Then, no excuse for their mischief shall remain except for them to say: ‘We swear by Allah, our Sustainer, we were not among those who associated partners with Allah!’ See how they lie against themselves and how those they invented have deserted them.” - Sura Al An’am How many times a day do we think about money? Not just the actual paper or metal currencies, but the ways in which it is an ever present part of our lives and consciousness.
“Do we have enough to pay the rent this month?” / “Can I afford to get name brand cereal today?” / “Don’t forget to get quarters for the laundromat.” / “Double-click to pay” / “Expense reports are due Tuesday” / “Here’s your allowance.” / “Lottery Tickets Sold Here” / “Where’s my tax refund?” / “Boycott Amazon” / “Give to this GoFundMe” / “How much to tip the Dasher?” / “The price of eggs is still yo high” / “Slash government spending” / “Defund Police” / “What’s your Venmo?” / “Payment past due” And how many times a day do we think about God? (Or whatever it is we may call “God,” the Sacred, the Holy, Love, etc ?) It’s not that the average person has turned money into a deity. In a world where we have economic systems centered on the man made (and that’s an intentional gendering) construct of money, heck, that we have “economic systems” to begin with, we are frankly forced to constantly turn our minds and hearts to money to survive. Almost all of us have inherited, and have literally bought into, a way of being that puts us in competition for an arbitrarily scarce resource. We have been forced to sacrifice our health, sanity, dignity, wholeness, and interconnectedness to the false deities of capitalism and consumption. Some of us may even be willing to defend them now, because we were lucky enough for our sacrifice to have paid off. And a few of us have gone all in and only seek to serve the “power” money gives us over each other. If we really “trusted in God,” we wouldn’t need to put that on our money. We wouldn’t need to put anything on our money, because it wouldn’t need to exist. If we really trusted in a power that could sustain ALL of us, that could support ALL of us in persevering through hardship and thriving together, we wouldn’t need money. We would have each other and a shared reverence for what we can receive and what we can give. We wouldn’t need to turn our minds every minute of the day to numbers, bills, finances, and deals - we would be free to turn our hearts to love, community, and creativity.  “We have sent revelation to you [Prophet] as We did to Noah and the prophets after him, to Abraham and Ishmael, and Isaac and Jacob and his descendants, to Jesus and Job and Jonah and Aaron and Solomon; and to David we gave the Psalms; To other messengers We have already mentioned to you before, and also some We have not. To Moses, God spoke directly.” - Sura Al Nisa’ Would you believe someone if they told you they were a messenger sent by God?
These days, it seems like the only people actually claiming that are the ones who are encouraging hatred of difference, profiting off of the desperate, seeking to hoard power, and denying any wrongdoing or fallacy on their part. Not really, uh, “God-conscious” behavior. So if we cannot trust it when people claim to be a messenger of God or a deliverer of revelations, how are we supposed to know who our prophets are? How do we identify the people who are going to reveal a way out of the mess of the world? If not everyone is handily named for us in a book, how do we know who to listen to? The Unnamed messengers in our lives are perhaps the most important ones for us to acknowledge. The people who, in living out their day-to-day lives, are modeling what it looks like to carry out the taqwa (God-consciousness) that the Named messengers emphasize and are lauded for in writing. The people who quietly help families safely relocate to places where they can receive essential gender affirming care. The people who sit vigil outside immigration offices in case individuals are separated from their families at a “routine” appointment. The musicians who create songs that give voice to the heartbreak, rage, and joy of living in these times. The writers who tell stories about worlds where difference is celebrated, desperation is met with compassion, power is collectively held, and people are humble enough to own and address their mistakes. The teachers who invite us to remember our most curious and caring selves. The Sacred, the Holy, God-consciousness, Love - whatever it is our Unnamed messengers reveal to us - cannot be contained to a single book. Even among the Named messengers, that is clearly impossible. And if that’s the case, how are we called to not just recognize but follow the paths outlined by the Unnamed messengers in our midst, so that perhaps others can one day witness how Love, the Sacred, or the Holy can be revealed by our own ordinary lives?  “And when you [Prophet] are with them, then establish prayer with them. Let a party from them stand in prayer with you and let them take their arms. Then when they have performed their prostrations, Let them move behind you and let another party Which has not yet offered prayer, pray with you. And let them take precautions for their protection and their arms.” -Sura Al Nisa’ “We keep us safe.” A chant, an aspiration, a promise, a practice. Particularly in communities where the true nature of policing and prisons has destroyed families and taken lives as the slavery-preserving institutions that they are. In movement moments when calculated risks must be taken but harm is prevented because of genuine accountability. In communities that practice harm reduction in its original, liberatory form: addressing the root causes of harm and removing the stigma and consequences of the survival strategies they have necessitated. In root systems that hold each other tight so that no storm or wind will topple the plants they sustain.
Today, an increasing number of people are waking up to a reality that others have known for quite some time - there is no safety in the systems we have been convinced to rely on. More of us are having to come to terms with new risks in our lives, new uncertainties, new dangerous realities. How do we keep us “safe” in these times when we are also learning a new definition of the word? We have both the obligation and opportunity these days to truly wrestle with what we believe and how we want to embody those beliefs. Who is included in our understanding of safety? What is essential for all of us to genuinely be “safe?” What are we willing to do, give up, invest in, resist, commit to as we keep all of us safe? If we are truly committed to resisting the violent philosophies that are at the root of so much of what is threatening our communities and beloveds, we can no longer pretend that the tools those philosophies tolerated in the past are enough to uproot them. Our methods must evolve past achieving enough concessions to placate some, to transforming all of what we know into an unrecognizable world that nourishes everyone. I believe we CAN keep all of us safe. But will we?  “Behold! In the creation of the heavens and the earth, and in the alteration of night and day, are there signs for those with awareness. Those, who remember Allah, standing and sitting and lying down; who reflect on the creation of the heavens and the earth, “Our Lord! (Rabb) You have not created all of this in vain. Glorified are you! Save us then from the torment of the Fire!” - Sura Al-‘Imran Have you ever worn an outfit that included the kind of glitter that, uh, lets the world know you were there? That leaves a sparkle trail so persistent, that three weeks later you’re still finding pieces on your couch or car seat? That four months later you are looking down at your cat, and you see a piece of it stuck to his tail?
There are glimmers of the presence of God, Love, the Holy everywhere. We can hear, feel, see, touch, smell, taste, remember, breathe, them when we pause and move with intention. When we are open to and engaged in the fullness of our world. When we persevere with the belief that Love never disappears or abandons us, but is at the root of all of existence. At the center of our faith. Even in these times when the harsh glare of violence and the blaring squalls of hatred seek to overwhelm our senses and spirits, God is still there, glinting away in the petals of an unexpected flower, the delivery of a meal, the wearing of a mask, the shine of a cane, and in the notes of a choir. Love is there in the restorative justice circles, the administration of Narcan, the sheltering of strangers, the path of salmon to their ancestral home. The Holy leaves traces of its presence through and around each and every one of us, so that no matter how hard some may try, they will never be able to fully destroy what is Sacred. The world is covered in God glitter. Sparkle on, beloveds.  “Satan frightens you with scarcity, and commands you to commit harmful deeds, Whereas Allah invites you towards God’s forgiveness and abundance. Indeed, Allah is Limitless and All-Knowing, and gives wisdom to whomever God wills. Whoever has received this wisdom has truly been given a boundless gift.” - Sura Al-Baqara At what age do we start believing the lie that we have to compete for a limited supply of worth?
Of dignity? Of love? What are the earliest messages we receive that tell us we are destined to struggle if we do not take from someone else? That in order to feel safe, we need to take from another’s sense of safety? In order for us to feel like we have enough, we need to know someone else has a little less? At what age do we start believing that our value is measured by our paychecks? That our right to wholeness and rest is defined by what we produce? That fulfillment comes from being consumed? At what age do we forget that “sharing is caring” is not just for children but also adults? That taking more than what one needs doesn’t avoid scarcity but creates it? That there is enough to go around AND leave behind to grow for the ones who come after us? At what age do we forget how to imagine? At what age do we lose the instinct to incessantly ask “why?” At what age do we literally buy-in to a way of being that diminishes us from “humans” to “human resources?” At what age do we dedicate our lives to systems and philosophies that were designed to abuse and kill? At what age can we (re)learn something new? |
Rev. Ranwa HammamyDaily Reflections on the Qur'an in Ramadan 2025 ArchivesCategories |
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